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November 13, 2004
Greetings from Saratoga Springs
... where winter seems firmly entrenched already. Brr!
American Cup Day 1
This was the first time I've been to a short track competition where Apolo didn't compete. In a way it was was odd. And yet, competition-wise, Apolo really doesn't belong here, as he demonstrated convincingly with his bye-qualifying performances in World Cups 1 and 2.
500m A final: Rusty Smith, Shani Davis, Alex Izykowski, Anthony Lobello
With all the American Cup skaters taking part this weekend, getting through heats through finals of both the 1500m and 500m in a single day was quite a marathon. I'm exhausted, so I can't imagine how the skaters feel. :-P
American Cup competition was scheduled to run from 8:30am to ~12:30pm, but I think the final 500m race finally concluded at about 4:30pm. I feel bad for all the Eastern States competitors who had a long wait before their events began late this afternoon!
This isn't much of a report, because I feel like I hardly know what went on at the competition today. Between trying to take photos and get used to my new camera, and not having ready access to heat sheets, plus the fact that American Cups are run in a format I'm not familiar with, I'm not sure who's winning! I think (but could be wrong) the Hyo-jung Kim won both distances for the women, with Allison Baver second. For the men, again, I think Rusty Smith won both distances and Shani Davis was second.
500m A final: Allison Baver, Hyo-jung Kim, Bridie Farrell
These four athletes seem certain to earn spots on the team for World Cups 3 and 4. But after them, I'm not really sure where things stand! It's really hard to keep track of what is going at an event like this. Alex Izykowski seems to be skating very consistently, but Derek Gray (who has new skates) has had a run of bad luck. (Congrats to Alex's sister Morgan Izykowski, skating in her first American cup this weekend!)
The officials were trying to be strict as far as keeping the heats running smoothly and efficiently. However a lot of the younger skaters in particular didn't seem to know when they were supposed to be skating and we saw some skaters miss their heats entirely. In other cases, skaters came onto the ice late for their heats, and the starter assessed the entire field a false start. Then if one skater subsequently false started, he or she was automatically disqualified for 2 false starts. This happened at least twice today.
In other cases though they seemed to wait for skaters to come to the ice without penalty, so I'm not sure how consistently this rule was applied. But it could be I missed something there, too.
Also, the new ISU rule governing repeating the full set of start commands after a false start is being applied here, but I have the impression the officials are still getting used to this rule change as well as the skaters. A few times it seemed they had to redo the restart in order to make sure they gave the skaters the full set of start commands the second time around.
It's great to see Bridie Farrell back skating in her second competition since returning from her knee injury. Rusty confirms he's emerged from his ordeal in Sweden mentally/emotionally unscathed (and to look at his nose, you'd never know what happened to him 8 months ago).
Quite a few skaters are injured right now. There have been a rash of cut injuries recently. Adam Duncan isn't skating this weekend because of a cut calf (I think). Anthony Lobello had stitches the other day after getting cut but seems to be skating pretty well in spite of this. (This kid busts a move every now and then that reminds me of you-know-who.) Mike Kooreman is in attendance but unluckily hurt his knee just last week so is sitting out the American Cup. J.P. Kepka, recently recovered from (I believe) a broken ankle *may* have reinjured it today in a hard fall in one of his races. After her bad fall in China, Maria Garcia isn't competing but is here with the team and seems to be doing well.
Caroline Hallisey is here this weekend and - surprise - is skating the Eastern States porition of the competition instead of skating the American Cup. It's great to see her out there again. She is just taking it easier this season and sitting out the senior level events but says she is continuing to train on her own in order to maintain her fitness. We miss her, but she looks great and seems very happy!
That's it for now... more tomorrow. Can't wait to see how the competition shakes out!
Posted by noelle at 11:31 PM | Comments (15)
November 12, 2004
Shani Davis article
Nice to have something more pleasant to read about this week! Good luck to all the skaters competing at American Cup 1 this weekend!
Chicago Tribune | Davis alters short-term goals
The 2004-05 World Cup circuit in long track speedskating begins Saturday in Hamar, Norway. The race program includes the 1,500 meters, the event in which Chicagoan Shani Davis became world champion last year.
But Davis won't be tooling around the 1994 Olympic oval in Hamar. He will be in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., trying to qualify for the next two World Cup events in short-track speedskating.
Everyone but Davis thinks he is on the wrong track.
"His heart is in short track, even if he could be the next person (after Eric Heiden) to qualify in every Olympic event in long track," said Bob Fenn of Milwaukee, who occasionally coaches Davis.
Northbrook native Andy Gabel, a three-time Olympian in short track and currently president of U.S. Speedskating, said dozens of people have tried to convince Davis to concentrate on long track, the traditional side of the sport.
"He is extraordinary in long track," Gabel said. "His stride is incredibly efficient, he has amazing strength and a huge oxygen tank.
"In short track, Shani is competent. His size (6 feet 2 inches, 175 pounds) hurts him in terms of agility."
Of course, if Davis had followed tradition, he might never have become the first African-American skater to win a medal (silver) at the World All-Around Championships and a title at the World Single Distance Championships, and become the first U.S. man to make a world team in both short- and long-track disciplines in the same season.
He did all that last winter after having become the first black speedskater to make a U.S. Olympic team two years earlier.
"I'm not doing anything different from last year," Davis said via telephone from Calgary, where the 1988 Olympic oval is his primary training rink. "Short track is fun for me, and I like doing what is fun."
Short track definitely is more fun. It is a race against a pack of people, first to the finish the winner, with a few elements of roller derby thrown in to make the race more exciting. Long trackers race in pairs, but they are competing against the clock.
The little money available in the sport is in long track, where Dutch and Norwegian companies are ready to pay the stars.
The prize money for the long-track World Cup is from 50 to 300 percent more, depending on category, than the money on the short-track circuit.
Chad Hedrick of the U.S., reigning world all-around champion, skates for a team sponsored by a Dutch bank and will make a low six-figure income from the sport this year. U.S. sprinter Kip Carpenter skates for the same team.
"I don't skate for the money," Davis said. "I don't have many bills to pay, and what I do, I can pay from the money I make in skating. You can't let your passion for the sport get clouded by money."
Davis, 22, a 2002 Olympian in short track, wants to be the first to compete in both short and long track events at the Olympics.
In short track, Davis is among several skaters scrambling for places on a U.S. team dominated by Olympic champion Apolo Anton Ohno.
If Davis is the top U.S. finisher at the New York meet, he will qualify for the individual events and the relay at the upcoming two World Cup events. If he is second or third, he will qualify for the relay at both but individual events only at one.
Davis was in the latter situation at the first two World Cups last month in China. He skated only the relay--which was disqualified in the final--at the opening World Cup in Harbin. He then was 16th overall individually (Ohno was second after winning in Harbin) and part of a silver-medal relay in Beijing.
"What Shani is doing works in terms of training, but in terms of competing, he absolutely is wasting his time in short track," Gabel said.
Davis, who also has completed two years of studies at Northern Michigan, believes he has not reached his potential in short track. He thinks he has plenty of time to concentrate on long track, "which you can do in your 30s."
Based on last year's performances, Davis made this season's long-track World Cup team in the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters. By declining to compete in the fall portion of the long-track World Cup schedule, he must do well at U.S. Championships in December to make the team for the 2005 world meets.
He intends to focus on long track again in early December but admits those plans could change based on results this weekend.
"It is possible I would do only long track the rest of this season and for the Olympics," Davis said. "But I like what I'm doing now, and I don't want to sell myself short."
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
Posted by noelle at 10:44 AM | Comments (10)
Canadian coach speaks out about abuse of Korean skaters
Korean women expelled from training; men to compete in World Cups
Globe and Mail | Abuse, punches, beatings with a stick -- and it's not even hockey
Though the headline may be in questionable taste, this is an interesting article because Canadian short track coach Guy Thibault offers observations about the Korean abuse situation. In one case, he witnessed a Korean skater being forced to complete a workout despite having just broken her leg in a fall of some kind.
Like many others, he hoped things had improved when the Korean coaching staff changed 2 seasons ago:
"We believed things were better now because they had changed their coaching staff after the Salt Lake City Olympics," Thibault said. "There was a woman on the staff and we'd see the girls smiling when they were skating. The men's team was even laughing for the first time. But maybe things didn't change."
According to this article and others, only the Korean women's team will be absent from the upcoming North American World Cups. Sounds like the men's team will compete as planned:
Six skaters in the world-class squad who made the allegations and walked out of their training centre in Seoul last week have been formally expelled from the centre. Four of the skaters are teenagers.
The country has cancelled its scheduled appearances at women's World Cup races in Madison, Wis., from Nov. 26 to 28 and Saguenay, Que., from Dec. 3 to 5.
It sure sounds like the Korean women are being punished for their actions. I had thought (apparently naively) the Korean team wouldn't compete because of the ongoing investigation and in order to put safeguards in place to protect the athletes -- and that surely this applied to the entire program, not just the women.
Nothing will change if they treat this as an isolated incident largely brought on by the women's rebelliousness.
Raise your hand if you think the Korean guys AREN'T getting the crap beaten out of them too. It would sure go a long way toward explaining some of their higher-risk skating tactics.
Full article in the extended entry
Abuse, punches, beatings with a stick -- and it's not even hockey By JAMES CHRISTIE
UPDATED AT 10:33 AM EST Friday, Nov 12, 2004
Six South Korean female speed skaters have accused some national coaches of brutal physical abuse, including punches and beatings with a hockey stick.
South Korea is a major power in short-track speed skating -- its women won two gold medals and two silvers at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002 . But the country's dominance apparently came at a cost.
Canadian coaches and athletes have witnessed harsh treatment of the South Korean athletes by coaches, including one case in which a woman was forced to complete a workout on a broken leg, according to Canadian national coach Guy Thibault.
"She was on the ice in pain, crying, and the coach ordered her: 'Stop crying. Stand up and finish training,' " Thibault recalled yesterday. "The next day, she was at the track on crutches. She had a broken leg. We've been concerned for a few years about them."
Korea Skating Union said yesterday that two coaches targeted by the allegations and at least six vice-chairmen of the KSU have resigned.
However, six skaters in the world-class squad who made the allegations and walked out of their training centre in Seoul last week have been formally expelled from the centre. Four of the skaters are teenagers.
The country has cancelled its scheduled appearances at women's World Cup races in Madison, Wis., from Nov. 26 to 28 and Saguenay, Que., from Dec. 3 to 5.
South Korean coaches have been told before that their tough tactics with athletes weren't acceptable when they were training at the Calgary Olympic Oval for Salt Lake City.
"In long-track training, one of the coaches was physically beating an athlete on the ice. One of our coaches went over and told him maybe that was legal at home, but in Canada the police would be called if he didn't stop. They were threatened with being put out of the Oval even if their training time was paid up for a month," Thibault said.
Corporal punishment, until recently, was allowed in the South Korean educational system. Coaches may have seen themselves as having the same authority as teachers.
"We believed things were better now because they had changed their coaching staff after the Salt Lake City Olympics," Thibault said. "There was a woman on the staff and we'd see the girls smiling when they were skating. The men's team was even laughing for the first time. But maybe things didn't change."
According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, the female skaters complained of beatings and verbal abuse and strict control over their private lives, including a ban on contact with male athletes and the use of mobile phones.
One of the six skaters said coaches beat them almost every day at the Taenung training centre in northern Seoul.
During a training session in October, a coach spanked a skater on her hips with a plastic skate guard and made her do push-ups until she collapsed, according to statements from the expelled skaters. The coach later grabbed her by the neck to punch her face non-stop, they said.
via globeandmail.com
Posted by noelle at 10:06 AM | Comments (9)
"...It's safe to say that this won't change things"
That's the disheartening conclusion of this editorial, which deplores the widespread acceptance of physical punishment and abuse in Korean society:
JoongAng Daily | Win-at-all-cost mentality at odds with human rights
What could be worse for athletes than getting caught using performance-enhancing drugs? Taking beatings from their coaches, and starting to hate the very sports in which they are competing, would be one correct answer.
What six Korean short track speed skaters revealed this week isn't shocking. It's not even news. At least for the scores of Korean athletes in training at this very moment it isn't.
And yet nobody is raising alarms. Why not? Because in this country, physical punishment has long been used by coaches to push their athletes, and nobody really cares. All we care about are the medals that come home. But what we have forgotten is that, at this very moment, basic rights are being violated under the pretext of "the good of the country."
Posted by noelle at 9:54 AM | Comments (5)
November 11, 2004
Scott Koons to resign
The USOC reports that Scott Koons, national development coach at the USOEC program in Marquette, will resign effective December 1. No word yet on his replacement.
Best wishes to Scott in his future endeavors -- he will be missed!
Posted by noelle at 11:36 AM | Comments (4)
Korean short track team to skip North American World Cups
ESPN.com | Team won't skate at [World Cups] during inquiry
Amid the ongoing abuse scandal and investigation, ESPN reports that the Korean team will not participate at World Cups 3 and 4 in Madison and Canada later this year.
Furthermore, the Korea Skating Union has reportedly disbanded the short track program. Whether that means merely that training is on hold while the investigation plays out, or they intend to dissolve and rebuild the program from the ground up is unclear.
This report also specifically cites Colorado Springs as one of the locations where abuse took place:
SEOUL, South Korea -- Six short-track skaters have accused their coaches of making their lives intolerable by beating and forbidding them to use mobile phones or contact male athletes.
The skaters stormed out of training camp last week in protest at the abuse, prompting the Korea Skating Union (KSU) to disband the world-class squad.
"We were also abused during trips to Colorado Springs and in countries where international competitions took place," she said. "I felt like killing myself but it also made me hate what I love the most -- skating. I can't continue with the current staff we have."
South Korea will now not be represented in women's races at World Cup short-track events in Canada and the U.S. in the coming weeks.
Posted by noelle at 11:08 AM | Comments (10)
Continued fallout from the Korean abuse scandal
Canada.com | Tales of harsh training, corporal punishment taint Korea's speed skating
The Canadian press reports today than in addition to the two Korean coaches who resigned in the past week, several Korean skating officials have also stepped down.
This article details some of the abuse inflicted on skaters and also states that the skaters in question were expelled from their training camp, seemingly in conflict with reports that they fled and were then persuaded to return.
SEOUL (AP) - South Korea has been stunned by tales of harsh training and physical punishment in its top-ranked short-track speed skating team, prompting two national team coaches and several senior skating officials to resign this week.
The dark side of the sport in South Korea came to light after six top female skaters, four of them teenagers, quit their training camp Nov. 3 to protest alleged beatings by coaches.
"No matter how much we tried, we were beaten if we didn't perform well," South Korea's national Yonhap news agency quoted one skater as saying in statements it said it acquired Wednesday.
After the alleged abuse was reported, two coaches stepped down and seven board members of the Korea Skating Union resigned Wednesday.
During a training session in October, a coach spanked a skater on her hips with a plastic cover for the skate blade and made her do push-ups until she collapsed, according to the statements.
The coach later grabbed her by the neck to punch her face non-stop, they said. The beatings took place not only during training sessions but during international competitions.
Yonhap did not reveal the names of athletes who wrote the statements or the coaches cited in them. It also didn't reveal the full texts of the handwritten statements.
Korea Skating Union denied that athletes on the national skating team wrote such statements, but said it was investigating the case.
All the six skaters were expelled from the training camp. They were not available for comment.
"Every day was so painful. I thought I'd rather give up skating than living under this inhumane treatment," one skater was quoted as writing in the statements. "Skating - what I once liked most in the world - has now become what I hate most in the world.
"They even didn't allow us to go and visit other rooms, so the only thing we could do was just sit in our room," another skater wrote.
South Korea is a powerhouse of short-track speed skating, sweeping most international competitions since 1994 Lillehammer Olympics in Norway, where it collected four gold medals in the women's 1,000 metres, men's 500 and 1,000 metres, and women's 3,000-metre relay. The country also won six out of 10 gold medals at in the 2003 Winter Asian Games in Aomori.
Harsh training methods on athletes, often accompanied by severe corporal punishment, had occasionally been a source of criticism against national sports teams in South Korea.
Corporal punishment was a common practice in South Korean schools until recently.© The Canadian Press 2004
Posted by noelle at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
Chat with Jonathan Guilmette this Saturday, 11/13
JonathanGuilmette.com will be hosting a live chat on Saturday, Nov. 13 at 3pm ET/12pm PT.
Anyone interested in participating can sign up at http://groups.msn.com/JonathanGuilmetteChat.
Posted by noelle at 9:38 AM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2004
Korean short track coaches resign following allegations of abuse
Eun-kyung Choi, Chun-sa Byun among the skaters alleging abuse
A shocker out of Korea this morning: the Korean press reports that two Korean short track coaches have resigned after female skaters fled the training center and accused them of abusive treatment. It seems that in their desperation, the skaters -- virtually all the top names on the national team -- took their story straight to a reporter.
Chosun Ilbo | Women Short Track Skaters Tell of Physical Abuse, Controlled Lives
"It is too painful and distressing to get by day-to-day. I have thought of how a human being, particularly a woman, could be beaten like this. I'm punished very severely if my performance doesn’t meet expectations, no matter how hard I may discipline myself.â€
The nation was shocked to learn that female members of the Korean national short track skating team had been treated inhumanely, including regular physical punishment and strict monitoring of their private lives. One member of the short track team, which had collectively fled the team's training center, said in a written statement to the Korea Skating Union on Wednesday, “Physical maltreatment continued even during overseas training tours and international tournaments. I've come to detest the skates I used to love so much."
In another statement, the skaters asserted the inhumanity of the coaches continued even in their private lives. “They pressured us not to speak freely in the dormitory, and banned borrowing books from the library and Internet surfing. They even banned us from visiting other rooms in the dormitory, and there was nothing we could really do except sit in our rooms quietly," said one skater. The short track team, which won all-round victories at the first and second World Cup events held in China, went straight to Taereung Athlete’s Training Center when the team returned to Korea on Nov. 1 without taking any rest whatsoever. Six members of the team, however, left the center without permission on Nov. 3, bringing with them complaints against the coaching staff. Those team members were Choi Eun-kyung, Yeo Su-yeon (Chung-Ang Univ.), Byun Chun-sa, and Huh Hee-bin (Shinmok High), Kang Yoon-mi (Gwacheon High), and Jin Seon-yoo (Gwangun High). The Korea Skating Union persuaded them to return to the center the next day.
“In order to protect the reputation of the world's strongest country in short track skating, the athletes have been forced to go through harsh training schedules while their personal lives were totally sacrificed,†said an official from the union, adding, “It seems the physical punishment may have crossed the line while the coaching staff was urging the athletes to attain another more good results in the third World Cup event scheduled for late November.†Coaches Kim So-hee and Choi Kwang-bok, who have been in charge of the woman’s national team since last year, handed in their resignations to the Korea Skating Union on Monday.
If anyone reads Korean, the link for this article shows an image of a written complaint by one of the skaters.
Here is a briefer report from Agence France Presse wire service:
Fox Sports | Abusive skate coaches resign
From correspondents in Seoul
November 10, 2004
TWO South Korean short-track speed skating coaches have resigned after allegations of habitual beatings and harsh treatment by women skaters during training, officials said today.
"We are investigating this incident to verify whether there is any truth in their allegations but I believe these are one-sided allegations made by young skaters who are stressed out," a senior KSU official said.
Let's hope the KSU official's statements in the first article are more representative than those in the second. Otherwise, it can't be considered a promising sign that the Korean Skating Union official is publicly questioning the skaters' credibility this way.
Posted by noelle at 9:36 AM | Comments (14)
November 9, 2004
More pictures from Apolo's 1000m heat in Sweden
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Posted by noelle at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)
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Posted by noelle at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)
November 8, 2004
New sponsor for Canadian team
Canadian speedskaters get new sponsor, hope to stay among best
MONTREAL - Canada's powerful speed skating teams got a financial boost Monday in their bid to stay among the world leaders heading into the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Speed Skating Canada announced it has received a seven-year sponsorship worth more than $2 million from Bell Canada. The money will allow the teams to expand their training and research programs and add support staff.
"It's easier to get to No. 1 than to stay there," [national short track coach Guy] Thibault said at the team's training centre at the Maurice Richard Arena. "For the last few years, we've been a reference point for other countries, but slowly they're getting better and catching up."via canada.com
Posted by noelle at 11:12 PM | Comments (4)
November 7, 2004
Photos from Apolo's 1000m heat in Sweden
I can't believe I'm still posting photos from Sweden! We're getting into the homestretch now...
Posted by noelle at 3:27 PM | Comments (14)
Jiajun Li and Apolo Ohno at the start
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Apolo waits for the start
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Apolo - 1000m heat in Sweden
Posted by noelle at 3:24 PM | Comments (0)
1000m heat -- Jiajun Li, Apolo Ohno, Volodymyr Hryhoryev, Tomas Greschner
Posted by noelle at 3:22 PM | Comments (1)